Many of you have written in to jeer at the amount of money I drop on gear, no offence is ever taken because my off-line friends mock me even more savagely, but in my self image I see myself as something of a bargain hunter so for this post I'm reviewing something that's such great value for money that it actually challenges Mora of Sweden's crown as 'best bang-for-buck outfit on the planet', effusive praise I know, but deserved!
When my pal at Edenweshops told me he had a range of kitchen knives I must admit I was a little underwhelmed, everyone and his uncle are selling kitchen knives and most of them are terrible, then he said 'They're in VG10' now as regular readers will know that made me sit up and pay attention, VG10 is one of the super steels that hold an edge long after the competition has been rendered blunter than the cold-word from a plumber. Then he showed me the price list! In the parlance of todays young people OMG! WTF!!
Up until a year ago VG10 was always at a fairly hefty price premium - prices starting at $100/£100 a blade and rising very steeply from there. With kitchen knives inexplicably costing even more than survival knives and stalking knives, more like $150/£150 and very quickly reaching double that and beyond
Because Eden are a relatively new name in knife sales, and this is their first foray into manufacturing, they've priced the knives at the level known as 'no-brainer'. Yep finally you can have a whole set of chef's knives for what one of the better known brands would set you back for just one knife.
Edge Holding? VG10 steel takes care of that.
Blade geometry? Cuts like a lazer, really like an effing lazer.
Fit and finish? 95% of what you'd get for several times the price, and nothing that you couldn't smooth out with a few sheets of wet-and-dry in and hour or so.
Kitchen Brag factor? Way way cooler than Global Knives for a fraction of the price
I've got one of the posher Damast series knives in the 'Santoku' blade shape, the perfect all-rounder for kitchen duties, and with its oil-on-water damascus pattern blade very very sexy, but if you're just after function rather than entering the 'kitchen tools arms race' with the other foodies, you can forgo the damascus option and just have plain VG10 blades for even less money! Personally I'm saving up to take advantage of the Whole-Set-For-30%-Off offer they're running at the moment.
Good Stuff, from nice guys, at silly cheap prices.
Very soon McShug and your pal SBW will be field testing some of Eden's own label binoculars against one of the better known names in American glass
More soon
SBW
